Julie Zimmerman

Hosting & Infrastructure

Operating web infrastructure with standards, visibility, and an exit plan.

I manage hosting as an operational system: environments, DNS, SSL, backups, deployment, updates, capacity, lifecycle, and incident response across more than 250 active web properties.

That experience led me to formalize managed-hosting standards around supportability and planned obsolescence rather than allowing every environment to become a permanent exception.

Philosophy

Engineering Philosophy

Infrastructure is reliable when routine work is predictable and exceptional work is recoverable.

Every environment needs a known owner, purpose, and lifecycle.

  • Backups matter only when restoration is understood and tested.
  • Deployment and update practices should reduce drift.
  • Unsupported infrastructure is a business risk, not merely a technical inconvenience.

Unsupported infrastructure is a business risk, not merely a technical inconvenience.

Problems

Problems I Solve

The most valuable work usually begins where a system has accumulated complexity, operational risk, or assumptions no one has revisited.

  • Fleet-wide hosting consistency
  • DNS and SSL transitions
  • Backups, restoration, and migration
  • Unsupported runtime and plugin retirement
  • Performance and capacity issues
  • Launch and post-launch operational QA

Approach

How I Work

I standardize the repeatable parts while documenting legitimate exceptions. That creates enough consistency to detect drift without pretending every workload is identical.

Infrastructure decisions include the eventual migration or retirement path, because systems that cannot change safely become liabilities.

Selected Projects

Work that makes the method visible.

Managed Hosting Policy

A supportability and planned-obsolescence framework for a large production fleet.

  • Defined lifecycle expectations
  • Reduced permanent exceptions
  • Lowered technical debt and response complexity

WordPress Fleet Management

Standards and operational tooling across 250+ active web environments.

  • Update and launch QA
  • Lifecycle and supportability standards
  • Cross-site incident response

Real-Estate Synchronization Systems

Cron-driven high-volume data pulls engineered around API limits and freshness requirements.

  • Incremental synchronization
  • Failure visibility and recovery
  • High-stakes listing data

WordPress Compromise Recovery

Forensic cleanup and hardening for persistent malware in legacy environments.

  • Payload and persistence analysis
  • Core and plugin integrity checks
  • Recovery followed by operational remediation

Experience

Representative experience.

Zee Creative · 2011–Present

Lead Web Developer

Lead developer and systems architect for a large, long-lived portfolio of production websites and integrations.

  • 250+ active web environments
  • Custom application and integration development
  • Technical standards, migration planning, launch QA, and incident response

SunGard Higher Education · approximately 8 years

Lead Software Engineer

Technical lead in enterprise higher-education software, working across large Oracle systems, performance testing, defect analysis, and release delivery.

  • Synthetic data generation exceeding one million records
  • Defect cross-reference and recurrence prevention
  • Enterprise release estimation and delivery

Technologies

Core technologies and areas of focus.

Infrastructure

Managed HostingDNSSSL/TLSBackupsMigrationsServer Administration

Platforms

Linux HostingWordPressMySQL/MariaDBGitHub PagesCloud Environments

Focus

Fleet StandardsLifecycle ManagementReliabilityRecoveryPerformanceDeployment QA

Business Value

Why lifecycle management matters

Infrastructure becomes expensive when every environment is treated as permanent and unique.

Clear standards and planned obsolescence reduce technical debt, shorten incident response, and make future migrations possible before they become emergencies.

Contact

Let's Talk

For technical leadership, architecture, modernization, or complex systems work, contact me directly.

Contact Julie
Reliable infrastructure includes a plan for change, not just a plan for today.